An early night tonight, ready to get up early tomorrow to catch the tide, & build AN EVEN BETTER SANDCASTLE THAN LASY YEAR!!! 
A sign from the gods! A mighty trunk, clearly washed up from the lost land of Lyonesse, marks the spot where we shall found our mighty castle.
Current mood: Romulus
As the foundations of the central keep are laid, @harryswan1 puts his back into it.
Meanwhile, to the north, the seas are pregnant with menace, & the threat of onslaughts to come. No time to rest...
As the mighty donjon rises between the mountains, @mjtgregory maps out the first screening wall...
Although - obviously - access to central keep will be tightly regulated, we have levelled off a space between its facing wall and the main moat, where libraries will be planted, & market places, attracting merchants from far away lands, & providing a showcase for our civilisation
No. A Pret.
The time has come to imprint on the landscape a mighty portrait of our tutelary goddess, so that she may protect us from the wrath of the times to come - or the Incoming Of The Tide, as it is called in our prophetic books...
Meanwhile, far beyond our capital, @mjtgregory is building Osgiliath...
The central donjon is finished. Mighty battlements, & a central keep with a spiral entrance redolent of the minaret of Samarra, render it effectively impregnable
Meanwhile, in the cliffs above the donjon, an #EnigmaticNeolithicMonument has appeared...
The great goddess Polzeath, divine patroness of our civilisation, hewn out of the living landscape
Peasants plant crops in the rich agricultural land that stretches between Osgiliath and the capital.
A stunning feat of engineering: clinging to the cliffs, Hadrian’s Wall snakes & climbs all the way from the Maginot Line to the #EnigmaticNeolithicMonument.
IMPREGNABLE!
IMPREGNABLE!
A nameless slave toils away in the heat...
Alarming news is brought along the imperial high road that animist peasants are plotting rebellion & that Osgiliath is menaced by barbarians
However, I am sure there is nothing to fear
Oh.
In the manner of Hadrian withdrawing from Mesopotamia, we have decided to abandon our periphery, and resettle the peasantry in our rich agricultural hinterland
The peasants have been successfully evacuated to our rich agricultural hinterland, and now, protected by our impregnable Maginot Line (aka ‘Pete’s Wall’), there is nothing to fear from encroaching barbarians
Look on my works, ye mighty, & despair!
THERE. IS. NOTHING. TO. WORRY. ABOUT!!!!
ABANDON THE AGRICULTURAL HINTERLAND!!!!
Preparing for battle: @mjtgregory relaxes with some cheeky pipeweed...
Pete’s Wall & the rich agricultural hinterland may have been lost to the enemy, but Hadrian’s Wall, the #EnigmaticNeolithicMonument, Harry’s Wall, the mosaic of our tutelary goddess & the capital with its spiral minaret still stand.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
We have decided, in the cause of optimising imperial defence, to abandon the peasantry to their fate
The goddess has been swept away
Hopeful the capital will hold out. I don’t want to boast, but it’s an absolute unit.
Well, we DID hold out! It was pretty tense, but the walls - like those of Constantinople against the Alans - defied all that the waves could throw at it. Note the sacred log of Lyonesse: exposed but intact.
